Clarence Cooper | |
---|---|
Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia | |
Assumed office February 9, 2009 | |
Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia | |
In office May 9,1994 –February 9,2009 | |
Appointed by | Bill Clinton |
Preceded by | Richard Cameron Freeman |
Succeeded by | Mark Howard Cohen |
Judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals [1] | |
In office 1990–1994 | |
Appointed by | Joe Frank Harris |
Personal details | |
Born | Decatur,Georgia,U.S. | May 5,1942
Spouse | Shirley M. Elder [2] |
Children | Two |
Education | Clark College (BA) Emory University (JD) Harvard University (MPA) |
Military service | |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Years of service | 1968–1970 |
Rank | Staff Sergeant |
Battles/wars | Vietnam War |
Clarence Cooper (born May 5,1942) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Cooper was born in Decatur,Georgia. He later moved to the city of Atlanta,where he graduated from David T. Howard High School in 1960. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Clark College in Atlanta,Georgia in 1964. He received a Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law in 1967. He is a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. Cooper received a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University,John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1978. He also received a diploma from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in connection with a research proposal he developed.
He served in the United States Army from 1968 to 1970 reaching the rank of Staff Sergeant. [2] He was decorated with the Bronze Star,a Certificate of Commendation,the National Defense Service Medal,the Army Good Conduct Medal,the Vietnam Service Medal,and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. [2]
He worked as an attorney for the Atlanta Legal Aid Society in 1967. He served as an assistant district attorney of Fulton County in 1968 and from 1970 to 1975. Cooper then served as a judge on the City of Atlanta Municipal Cour from 1975 to 1980. Cooper was the first African-American appointed to a full-time judgeship on the Atlanta Municipal Court[ citation needed ] and the first African-American ever elected to a county-wide judgeship on the Fulton Superior Court[ citation needed ]. He was also the first African American assistant district attorney hired to a State Prosecutor's office in Georgia in 1968[ citation needed ]. Judge Cooper was the presiding Judge in the trial of Wayne Williams,the prime suspect in the Atlanta child murders,who was convicted of the murders of Jimmy Payne and Nathaniel Cater. He was a judge on the Fulton Superior Court,Georgia from 1980 to 1990. He was a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals from 1990 to 1994.
Cooper was nominated by President Bill Clinton to be a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on March 9,1994,to a seat vacated by Richard Cameron Freeman. Cooper was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 6,1994,and received commission on May 9,1994,and he assumed senior status on February 9,2009.
Cooper ordered an Atlanta school system to remove stickers from textbooks which call the theory of evolution "a theory,not a fact." In the case Selman v. Cobb County School District ,he ruled that these stickers are an endorsement of religion and as such violate the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution. [3]
This section needs to be updated.(April 2015) |
Cooper was assigned to the case of Whitaker v. Perdue,a federal challenge to Georgia House Bill 1059 which requires that registered sexual offenders cannot live or work within 1,000 feet from schools,school bus stops,churches,day care centers,and areas where children gather,such as parks,recreation centers,playgrounds,swimming pools,etc. In July 2006,Judge Cooper issued a restraining order barring enforcement of the law near the vicinity of bus stops. In August,he certified a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all of Georgia's 11,000 registered sex offenders instead of just the eight plaintiffs. On March 30,2007,the judge dismissed some of the plaintiff's claims from the suit,including the claim that the law represented cruel and unusual punishment;the rest of the case will go forward. Plaintiff's lawyers had until June 1,2007,to file a new,revised complaint.[ citation needed ]
Cooper's wife,Shirley Cooper,was the first black food service coordinator for Fulton County School System. Cooper has two children.[ citation needed ]
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia is a United States district court which serves the residents of forty-six counties. These are divided up into four divisions.
Mike Jacobs is an American trial judge and former Republican politician from Georgia. Jacobs was appointed to the fifth district of the State Court of DeKalb County by Governor Nathan Deal in 2015 district five,and was unopposed for reelection in 2016 and 2020. In 2018,Jacobs became the first sitting judge in the United States to come out as bisexual. He is also the first openly LGBTQ countywide elected official in DeKalb County history.
Orinda Dale Evans is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Horace Taliaferro Ward was a lawyer,state legislator,and judge in Georgia. He become known for his efforts to challenge the racially discriminatory practices at the University of Georgia School of Law and was the first African American to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Frank Mays Hull is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Julio Manuel Fuentes is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Fuentes is the first Hispanic judge to serve on the Third Circuit.
During President Bill Clinton's first and second terms of office,he nominated 24 people for 20 federal appellate judgeships but the nominees were not processed by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. Three of the nominees who were not processed were nominated after July 1,2000,the traditional start date of the unofficial Thurmond Rule during a presidential election year. Democrats claim that Senate Republicans of the 106th Congress purposely tried to keep open particular judgeships as a political maneuver to allow a future Republican president to fill them. Of the 20 seats in question,four were eventually filled with different Clinton nominees,fourteen were later filled with Republican nominees by President George W. Bush and two continued to stay open during Bush's presidency. Senator Harry Reid,the Democratic leader of the United States Senate during the 110th Congress,and Senator Patrick Leahy,the Democratic leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee under Reid,repeatedly mentioned the controversy over President Clinton's court of appeals nominees during the controversy involving the confirmation of Republican court of appeals nominees during the last two years of Bush's second term. Republicans claimed that Democrats were refusing to confirm certain longstanding Bush nominees in order to allow a future Democratic president in 2009 to fill those judgeships.
Sarah Elizabeth Savoia Vance is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Willis Beverly Hunt Jr. is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Tanya Marie Walton Pratt is the Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
Amy Mil Totenberg is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She previously worked in private practice in Atlanta and also formerly served as a Special master for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.
Steve CarMichael Jones is a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and a former Georgia Superior Court judge.
Jill Anne Pryor is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Pryor was born in Harrisburg,Pennsylvania.
Mark Howard Cohen is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
George Carol Hanks Jr. is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Loretta Yvonne Copeland Biggs is a United States District Court Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
Elizabeth Lee "Lisa" Branch is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She was formerly a judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals from 2012 to 2018.
Ada Elene Brown is an American lawyer who is a district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She is a former trial judge of the Dallas County courts and a former Justice of the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas. She was the first African-American woman federal judge nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate. She is also the first African American woman to sit as a federal judge in the 140- year-history of the Northern District of Texas.
Steven Daniel Grimberg is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.